The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-02-01

to within . day or two. all who have understood
the situation have seen that serious as the state
of affairs is, it Is trihe compared with what
would result from putting the strikers into more
angry and belligerent temper than they are. The
men have ali along said they expected the COM
panies to treat with them. and that they were
willing to compromise. But they have at the
same time persistently threatened that if the
companies choose TO fight them. instead OF meet
ing them half way, they would transform this
comparatively little trouble into one OF the
greatest strikes of modern times They say tn [
they have the means at hand to absolutely arres J,
all work upon coal between the mines and the eel
lars of the consumers, and TO block the wheels OF
industry In two-thirds of the manufacturing in
terests that rely upon coal in the section OF the
country east of the Alleghanies. They not only
claim that, as Knights of Labor, they can para
iyze he coal industry, but that if the coal COM
panies force the fight and attempt to put new
men at work upon the coal in any of its stages
of movements from the mines to the seaboard,
that they will then boycott every body who uses
any of the coal thus marketed against their will,
including engineers, fremen, carmen, steve
dores, freight handlers mill operators, in fact,
a list appalling il its ramifcations. Curiously
enough, while the have shown at least
some disposition to make treaty with their en-
ployers. there has been so much of the same dis
position on the part of the employing companies
that it said that only few of the leading men in
the leading companies are now responsible for
the continuance of the strike. These employers
take various grounds to account for their atti-
very familiar one that they fear that it is
not polite to allow a committee of Knights
of Labor to step in between them and their en-
ployes. Others assume that it would not be
commercially safe to grant the increase of pay
demanded by the men, partly because the con-
sumers would protest against it, and partly be-
cause they say they suspect that the only employ
ers who favor the increase are bankrupt, and con-
sequently Indifferent to the result But apart from
all that, the situation is already so serious that
it is said that if the strike were to end lmmedi-
atey coal would not be plenty again until the
middle of spring, and between now and then the
manufacturing and other concerns that depend
upon it could not get enough to carry on their
works. and would be obliged to suspend opera
tions review of the history of the work from
the beginning, calmly and dispassionately made,
will be helpful to the public, if the predictions
that are made as to what is to come shall prove
true. Thirty. three million tons of coal are
mined annually in the United States, and two
thirds of this output passes through the coal
ports that face the harbor of New York.
million tons month are required to sat
isfv New York and its close surroundings The
strikers are the men who unload the coal from
the railroad cars and load it into the boats. and
they are divided into two classes-trimmers and
top-men. These are mainly Irishmen of grade
above that of the unskilled laborer. and among
them the trimmers are the most influential be-
cause they are the most in telgent and best paid.
Their power in this alteration with their en-
ployers is seen in the fact that they handle two
thirds of the output of the coal-mines in the
country, and all that is used around New York
and through the Eastern States. The railroads
have found it impossible to supply the East by
rail, because of the necessity of great arrears of
yard room, and so centering the trade at New
York and distributing the coal by boats has been
found to be the most economical way The top
men, who handle the coal, dump and wheel it
under the boat by the hour. The trimmers
trim level it in the vessel into which
It is loaded. and are paid by the
ton, at from to cents ton,
IN prices varying according to the
Class of vessels that they are loading. These
workmen live in the settlements back of the
piers, and at Communipaw, and Elizabethport
and South and Perth Amboys, and large pro-
| portions of them own their own homes. Their
habitations, their excellent physique. and their
! behavior up to to-day. show them to be un-
| common lot of men. The trimmers, who make
| the most money, and dominate the rest by their
intelligence, are. however, engaged In a very I'M
| healthy business. The average working career
| of a trimmer is only eighteen years. One Of
| them, in addressing District Assembly 40 the
| other day, said that eighteen years ago he
| worked with $50 other men, of whom only three
| are alive to-day. The trimmer's duty is to stand
| in the hold of vessel while the coal is poured
into it through chutes from the trestles on
| the pier. AS the coal falls around him
| he shovels it right and left and levels
| it all over the vessel until he and his compan-
| ions find themselves waist deep IN the material,
| when they knock with their shovels upon the
| deck of the vessel. to give notice to their COM
rades to shut off the supply. During all the
| time that they are thus at work, they breathe
| an atmosphere checked with coal dust that
the air can almost be cut with their snoves.
The consequence is, that their lungs are kept in
constant state of irritation, and it is said that
| no matter of what ailment trimmer is taken
| sick, he always dies of pneumonia These trim
/ mers form guild and work in peculiar way,
and upon this popularity hangs part of the pres
/ ent contention. Each set of trimmers appoints
| its own boss. who is at once their time keeper
apA H. 4svr.AA e <toxv
| and at the end of the month divides their earn
| ings among them. They, their part, guar
antee either to remain regularly work. or in
case Of enforced absence to appoint a substitute
| SO that the num5er at work always remains the
same.
Although they scarcely average So day, they
| always pay substitutes 81 day, custom only
| to be explained as an old one that has never
been changed. Such things are Otter noticed il
the habits Of workingmen, and equally
| strange custom among these workmen has LEI
up to their present strike; this was the custom
of allowing their bosses to grow rich at their ex
peuse but the story of the strike will lead up t
that Last spring demands were made at al
shipping points, including Port Richmond.
Philadelphia and Reading depot, on the Della
ware, for an increase of hour rates and trimmers
rates. The men asked for % cents an hour
though really wanting only % cents and half
and an increase of two cents ton in trimmers
wages, though they only wanted one cent Tb
topmen were getting seventeen and half cent
an hour, and the trimmers running scale from
one to eight cents per ton; they also hernandez
that the determinations in favor of the compa
, nvs boats be abolished. This discrimination wa
required by the companies that enforced it as a
} Offset to the cash percentage taken from tn
, trimmers earning at Perth and South Amboy
. Years ago the BOSSES appointed by the trimmer
, from among their own number, used to collect
/. percentage varying from % to 20 per cent fo
? collecting and dividing the mems wages
I must be understood that these men do not wor
; for coal company, their pay is considered
: charge on the vessels they load, but because tn
. captains did not always have the money to pa
| the trimmers the companies assumed the pay
. | ment and charged that as cash advanced in th
, bill of lading and took the percentage for then
d selves At first the bosses made collections frol
: the captains. and the men allowed them to tai